Particle Astrophysics with IceCube at Georgia Tech

Georgia Tech Research Corporation, Atlanta GA

Investigators

Abstract

Embedded deep in the ice cap at the South Pole, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory (ICNO) is the world's largest and most sensitive high energy neutrino telescope. It is a 1 gigaton Cherenkov detector using the Antarctic ice as a detection medium for high energy atmospheric and astrophysical neutrinos. Most of the neutrinos observed by IceCube exhibit energies in the range expected for atmospheric neutrinos originating from decays of particles produced in extensive air showers by Cosmic Rays coming from nearby sectors of the Milky Way Galaxy. These may be used to measure the fundamental properties of neutrinos. At higher energies, astrophysical neutrinos are key probes of the high-energy universe. Because of their unique properties, neutrinos escape even dense regions, are not deflected by galactic or extra-galactic magnetic fields and traverse the photon-filled universe unhindered. Thus, neutrinos provide direct information about the dynamics and interiors of the powerful cosmic objects that may be the origins of high energy cosmic rays: supernovae, black holes, pulsars, active galactic nuclei and other extreme extragalactic phenomena. Students and postdocs working on this project will benefit by training in particle astrophysics, instrumentation and data analysis of very large data sets. An educational program including high-school students, teachers and undergraduate students will continue. In collaboration with CEISMC and GoSTEM at Georgia Tech the PI and members of his group present lectures and hands on demonstrations on the topics of particle and nuclear physics and astrophysics. The most powerful events in nature are usually transitory or episodic. Examples are the explosions of massive stars (core collapse supernovae, CC-SNe), high-energy emission by super-massive black holes at the center of galaxies (active galactic nuclei, AGNs), and the very energetic jets that power gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). This award will support the use of IceCube data to study very-high-energy neutrino astrophysical transients, including GRBs, choked GRBs and, potentially, still unknown types of astrophysical objects. The project will address two topics: a) Are choked GRBs related to CC-SNe and do they produce neutrinos? b) Are the sources of the astrophysical neutrino flux, recently discovered by IceCube, transient? Using IceCube data the Georgia Tech group will search for neutrino transients of one second to one day in duration in the 30 to 300 billion electron-volts energy range. The discovery of a neutrino burst with this search may reveal that CC-SNe and GRBs are part of a continuous class of astrophysical objects and that jets are also a feature of CC-SNe.